Conventional roofing systems employ various cladding elements, including terra-cotta tiles, concrete tiles, pressed or roll-formed metal panels, timber tile elements (shingles), fiberglass reinforced plastics material panels and various composite material panels. In addition to the dead weight which is applied to the structural members of a roof by these cladding elements, a roofing system can be subjected to further dead loads (imposed, for example, by snow), to wind loading and to other dynamic loadings imposed by, for example, seismic disturbances. These various types of load cause stresses to be induced in the structural members and/or in the cladding elements, and the elements may then break free from the structural members. In order to alleviate this problem, supplementary load bearing support members in the form of roofing battens and/or timber panels are customarily affixed to the skeletal structural members of a roof, and the cladding elements are affixed to the battens.
The cladding element of the present invention has been developed to provide an intrinsic, omnidirectional load bearing capability so that it might be affixed directly to roof rafters, trusses and/or stringers and, thus, so as to avoid the cost of providing and fixing the conventional roofing battens. The cladding element may also avoid the need for some of the customary roof frame bracings.